History of Utah, 1540-1886 - Brigham Young University

NUMBER OF ENGLISH PROSELYTES. 407
deacons. 17
It is worthy of note that the number of
members at this date was about the same as is stated
in the report dated June 1, 1851, 18 no interval of this
length having previously occurred during which the
number of proselytes was not largely increased.
Meanwhile, however, the number of branches had increased
by 100, and during the last half of the year
1852 more than 2,000 members had emigrated.
Manchester conference, with its starved factory
operatives, heads the list with 3,282 members, and
those who have visited any of the great manufacturing
towns of Lancashire, where in winter men, women,
and children may be seen hastening from their illdrained
hovels through the snow and slush of the
dark streets to the cotton-mill, returning exhausted
with toil to their supper of bread and tea, will not
wonder that these hapless human beings were glad to
exchange their hard lot for the plenty of the promised
land. In London the number of proselytes was
2,464, in Birmingham 1,883, in Norwich 1,061, and
in Liverpool 1,041. In no other town or city does
the number amount to one thousand, though most of
the shires of England are represented in the list of
branches.
At this period the British Islands were justly
termed the stronghold of Mormonism ; and that Mormon
missionaries made in that country a deep and
abiding impression is shown by the fact that their
32,000 proselytes, nearly all of them being mechanics,
laborers, or factory operatives, expended of their scant
earnings nearly one dollar per capita a year for the
purchase of Mormon books, periodicals, and insignia. 19
17 During that term 3,400 persons had been baptized, 85 had emigrated,
and 234 had died. Id., xv. 78.
18 A copy of which will be found in Id., xiii. 207, and in condensed form
in Mackay, The Mormons, 246-7.
19 In the Millennial Star, xiii. 208, it is stated that, between May 30 and
June 16, 1851, £255-8-1 was received, or at the rate of about 80 cents per
capita for that period. In Ibid, we have a list of £l,965-2-l| due from
the various conferences for books, badges, etc.
The first number of the Millennial Star was published in May 1840,
6ome few weeks after the arrival of Brigham Young and his party, Parley P.